Armenia Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Restoration of independence=== {{Main|History of Armenia#Independent Armenia (1991-today)}} [[File:NKR war.JPG|thumb|Armenian soldiers in 2008, during the ongoing and unresolved [[Nagorno-Karabakh conflict]]]] On 21 September 1991, Armenia officially declared its [[statehood]] after the [[1991 Soviet coup d'Γ©tat attempt|failed August coup]] in Moscow, [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|RSFSR]]. [[Levon Ter-Petrosyan]] was popularly elected the first President of the newly independent Republic of Armenia on 16 October 1991. He had risen to prominence by leading the [[Karabakh movement]] for the unification of the Armenian-populated [[Nagorno-Karabakh]].<ref name="Croissant"/> On 26 December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist and Armenia's independence was recognised. Ter-Petrosyan led Armenia alongside Defense Minister [[Vazgen Sargsyan]] through the [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]] with neighbouring Azerbaijan. The initial post-Soviet years were marred by economic difficulties, which had their roots early in the Karabakh conflict when the [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Azerbaijani Popular Front]] managed to pressure the Azerbaijan SSR to instigate a railway and air [[blockade]] against Armenia. This move effectively debilitated Armenia's economy as 85% of its cargo and goods arrived through rail traffic.<ref name="Croissant">{{cite book |last=Croissant |first=Michael P. |title=The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications |publisher=Praeger |year=1998 |location=London |isbn=978-0-275-96241-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/armeniaazerbaija00croi }}</ref> In 1993, Turkey joined the blockade against Armenia in support of Azerbaijan.<ref name=GHF>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalheritagefund.org/news/GHF_in_the_news/economist_ties_that_divide_june_17_06.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820170846/http://www.globalheritagefund.org/news/GHF_in_the_news/economist_ties_that_divide_june_17_06.asp |archive-date=20 August 2006 |publisher=[[Global Heritage Fund]] |title=The Ties That Divide |date=17 June 2006 |access-date=22 July 2009}}</ref> [[File:September 21, 2011 parade, Yerevan.jpg|thumb|left|upright|21 September 2011 parade in Yerevan, marking the 20th anniversary of Armenia's re-independence]] The Karabakh war ended after a Russian-brokered [[ceasefire]] was put in place in 1994. The war was a success for the Karabakh Armenian forces who managed to capture 16% of Azerbaijan's internationally recognised territory including almost all of the Nagorno-Karabakh itself.<ref name="DeWaal">{{cite book |first=Thomas|last=De Waal|title=Black Garden: Armenia And Azerbaijan Through Peace and War|location=New York|publisher=New York University Press|page=240|isbn=978-0-8147-1945-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jycTCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA240 |year=2004}}</ref> The Armenian backed forces remained in control of practically all of that territory until 2020. The economies of both Armenia and Azerbaijan have been hurt in the absence of a complete resolution and Armenia's borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan remain closed. By the time both Azerbaijan and Armenia had finally agreed to a ceasefire in 1994, an estimated 30,000 people had been killed and over a million had been displaced.<ref>[http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/1283/conflict_that_can_be_resolved_in_time.html A Conflict That Can Be Resolved in Time: Nagorno-Karabakh] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081001192200/http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/1283/conflict_that_can_be_resolved_in_time.html |date=1 October 2008 }}. International Herald Tribune. 29 November 2003.</ref> Several thousand were killed in the later 2020 Karabakh war. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page